NRSA ‘failing to enact reforms’

THE junta-appointed National Reform Steering Assembly (NSRA) has hardly brought about any concrete reform despite having been in office for almost two years, audience members heard at a seminar yesterday. 
Speakers at the seminar added that the assembly had only helped provide justification and serve as a buffer for the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).
The remarks were heard at a public seminar titled “Two Years of NRSA: What has society gained from it?” held at the Thai Journalists Association headquarters.
Nikorn Chamnong, a director of the Chart Thai Pattana Party, who recently resigned from the NRSA, conceded that the NRSA had been appointed to give advice to the prime minister only. It had no authority to take action, he said.
“What we do is create plans and then send them to different agencies,” the former reformer said. “There are 27 key points of reform such as administration mechanisms, basic infrastructure and human development.”
Nikorn said in the past two years, the NRSA had approved 190 reports. About two-thirds have been submitted already to the prime minister, he added.He admitted that the process was not like an assembly, but rather a bureaucratic system and the NRSA acted as a buffer for the NCPO. When facing strong pressure, the government could easily drop the proposals, the veteran politician said.
The NRSA was set up in 2015 to replace the National Reform Council (NRC), which was dissolved due to the failure of a draft constitution. 
Chawalit Wichayasut, Pheu Thai Party’s former deputy secretary-general, echoed Nikorn about the role of the NSRA, which was to study and provide advice to the government. Its questionable achievements had resulted from the government’s failure to prioritise points in the reform work, Chawalit said.
“If the government had wanted to bring about reform on some particular point, it should have prioritised it so the NRSA could work intensively on it,” the politician said.
Chawalit also said that the junta had failed to identify the key issues facing the country. He added that it was the lack of democracy that had worsened everything in the past three years. He urged all sides to help return the country to normality to improve inclusiveness and public participation in the reform work.
Democrat politician Nipit Intrasombat, meanwhile, said the NRC and the NRSA had not been necessary but had been set up mainly to support the NCPO. “More importantly, not all the points proposed by the NRSA were taken up by the NCPO. The junta leaders think for themselves and have already decided that the country is better with semi-democracy,” Nipit said. 
He went on to say that the country would not see democracy in the future as everything had been prescribed by the Constitution and the national strategy was to be semi-democratic. But it was unclear whether the military government’s plan would succeed, he said.
Reform advocate Suriyasai Katasila told the forum he was concerned about the 20-year national strategy that would strengthen the bureaucratic system and weaken democracy, he said. 
Suriyasai, a deputy dean at Rangsit University’s College of Social Innovation, said he hoped that reform could take shape and prove effective after an election next year.